Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 3:14:
Uma: “He is holy and straight/upright, but you rejected him, and you requested to Pilatus that he release for you a murderer.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “He was holy/clean and righteous/straight but you did not receive/accept him. The one whom you asked the Governor to release was a man who had murdered.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “But as for you, you didn’t like him who is pure and has no bad custom. You begged that the one Pilate should release would be the murderer who was in prison.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “He was holy and righteous, but you rejected him nevertheless while furthermore you were repeatedly-requesting from Pilato that he release the murderer (lit. one-who-kills life).” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “You really rejected this one who is righteous/straight and far from all sin, for the one whom you requested to be released was a person who is a murderer.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chuj: “That Jesus, very precious before God, very straight his character. But you, you didn’t allow (want) him to be freed. But one man killer you asked to have him freed.”
Coatlán Mixe: “Where it was proper to have asked that he be saved, the one who was found pure (clean) and righteous, you rather asked that he be freed who was a sinner who had murdered.” (Source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:2:
Uma: “Suddenly they heard something making noise from the sky, like the blowing of a big wind. That noise was audible all over in their meeting house.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Suddenly there was a sound from the sky like the sound of a strong wind. And that sound entered the house where they were sitting.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And taking them by surprise was a very loud noise which they heard coming from heaven that was like the roaring of a very strong wind. This noise reverberated there inside the house where they were gathered.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When that was so, they suddenly-heard a loud-noise from heaven like a rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where-they -were-gathered.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Suddenly/unexpectedly there was a sound they heard coming from heaven/sky, like the sound of a strong wind, and the house where they were gathered was enveloped in that sound.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Isthmus Mixe : “Then the air suddenly made a loud noise in the house where they were sitting. It started making the noise from the sky.”
Chuj: “Just then, something sounded from heaven, like a wind very angrily it sounds. Very angrily (loudly) it sounded entering into the house where they were sitting.” (Source for this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Hiligaynon: “While they are-gathering together, suddenly there was a roar which came from heaven the-same as a strong wind, and now only roaring-noise was what they heard inside the house where they are-gathering.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Mairasi: “Right while they were sitting there they heard a roar like that of a strong wind coming down from the sky. The house in which they sat pressed down on them with the roar.” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
Bariai: “Suddenly, they heard something like a very great wind roaring from heaven and coming, and then its sound filled the house in which they were sitting.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Kupsabiny: “Before long, some noise came from above like a whistling whirlwind and that noise covered all the house.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 3:19:
Uma: “So relatives, repent from your sins and submit to the Lord God, so that he may forgive your sins. From there, the Lord God will strengthen your hearts and he will order Yesus to come to us. Because he is the one whom God decided upon from-the-start to become our Redeemer King.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “Na,’ Petros said, ‘regret and let-go-of your sins, and return now to God so that he will remove/take-away your sins.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And now it is necessary that we (incl.) the descendants of Israel, we must abandon our bad customs. Let’s pray to God and he will forgive us our sins. And then there will be a time when our breath will be given the strength which comes from God.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Repent therefore of your sins so you will turn-to-face God, so then he will forget your sins.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Therefore now, repent/be-sorry truly and submit to God, so that you may be forgiven, that your sins may be removed.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chuj: “Therefore think yourselves; change yourselves, put your minds into God so that your sins will be caused to be finished-remaining out. If thus, there is a time God will send peace to you.”
Teutila Cuicatec: “Now repent of your sins and call on God so that he can forgive you and quiet and encourage your hearts. (Source for this and above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 2:6:
Uma: “When they heard that noise that was like wind, they came in throngs to gather-together. They were confused, because they each heard their own language being used by those apostles of Lord Yesus.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “When they heard the noise (going on) inside that house where the disciples of Isa were gathered, a great number of them went there gathering. They were greatly surprised, because they heard the disciples of Isa speak like the language of each one of them.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And when they heard this noise, they all gathered together there, and they were very surprised because each one of the people who gathered there, he could hear his very own language being spoken by the believers.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “When they heard that-aforementioned noise, many were those who went to go see. They were open-mouthed (with surprise), because when they heard what the believers in Jesus were telling, each-one heard in his own (lit. proper) language.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “When they heard that sound, many approached there. On arriving, they were bewildered for they heard being spoken by those believers the languages of those lands they had come from.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “When they heard that roaring-noise, they quickly went there where the believers are-gathering. They were very surprised because each one of them was-able-to-hear that it was his language being-spoken by the believers.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Mairasi: “When they themselves heard that sound come down, many people gathered together. They themselves their breath kept escaping because they themselves heard Yesus’ sent-ones continuously speaking in each person’s own language. ” (Source: Enggavoter 2004)
Bariai: “And they heard that sound, and so many of them came and gathered together, yet they were confused, because they heard talk coming forth in each of their languages.” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Kupsabiny: “When they heard that noise they gathered together. As each of them heard his language being spoken, they were amazed.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Chuj: “When that sounded, very many people gathered together. Their minds were confused because they all heard their own language. The believers were speaking the languages of each of their tribes.” (Source: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
Following are a number of back-translations of Acts 3:20:
Uma: “So relatives, repent from your sins and submit to the Lord God, so that he may forgive your sins. From there, the Lord God will strengthen your hearts and he will order Yesus to come to us. Because he is the one whom God decided upon from-the-start to become our Redeemer King.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
Yakan: “So-then times of encouraging your livers will be coming/arriving from God, and he will send back into the world Isa, he is Almasi the one chosen to rule over you.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “And he will send here to us Jesus, who is the one he chose to rule over us.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Because if you do that, God will cause-to-arrive a time of calming and strengthening of the mind/thoughts, and furthermore he will again send Jesus the Messiah whom he appointed previously to rule over us.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “Provided you will do this, God will give you far-from-ordinary happiness and peace/protection of your mind/inner-being. And also, the day will come when he will again cause Jesu-Cristo to descend, that Savior whom God ordained to reign over us.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Chuj: “God will send again Jesus the second time because God has given remaining Christ’s office to be your savior.
Teutila Cuicatec: “Then he will send again Jesus, the one who is Christ, who was set apart for you since former times.
Morelos Nahuatl: “Then God will send Jesus Christ again. God chose him in order to save you from your sins.”
Rincón Zapotec: “God will send again Jesus, the Christ whom he designated since before to be your ruler.”
Tataltepec Chatino: “Then God will give orders to Jesus to come back again, Jesus whom God chose to be your boss.” (Source for this and three above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
The Greek that is translated as “Son of Man” is mostly used by Jesus to refer to himself as well as in the prophecies of Daniel and Enoch (see Enoch 17:34 et al). It is translated in the following languages as (click or tap for details):
Tzotzil: “I who am equal with men” or “The Older Brother of Everybody” (“expressing the dignity and authority of the Messiah and the universality of his work”)
Tenango Otomi: “The Man Appointed” (i.e. the man to whom authority has been delegated) (source for this and preceding: Beekman, p. 189-190, see also Ralph Hill in Notes on Translation February 1983, p. 35-50)
Aguaruna: “One who was born becoming a person” (source for this and two above: M. Larson / B. Moore in Notes on Translation February 1970, p. 1-125.)
Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Older Sibling of Mankind” (source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
Kankanaey: “Child of a Person” (source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
Tagbanwa: “One From Heaven Born of Man/human?” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
Tenango Otomi: “Man who came from heaven” (source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)
Yatzachi Zapotec: “One who God sent, who was born a human” (a direct translation would have suggested “that the father is unknown due to the indiscretions of the mother” and where “he is the son of people” is used when one wants to disclaim responsibility for or relationship with a child caught in some mischief — source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Kâte: Ŋic Fâri Wâtuŋne or “the man who is a true support” (source: Renck, p. 106)
Mezquital Otomi: “The son who became a person” (Source: B. Moore / G. Turner in Notes on Translation 1967, p. 1ff.)
Alekano: “The true man who descended from heaven” (source: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation June 1986, p. 36ff.)
Central Tarahumara: “One who has been stood up to help” (“This suggests that Christ has been given authority to some appointed task. A very generic word, help, was selected to fill in the lexically obligatory purpose required by the word which means to appoint or commission. Usually this word is used of menial tasks but not exclusively. The choice of this generic term retains the veiled reference to the character of Christ’s work which He intended in using the ‘Son of Man’ title.”)
Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “He who is relative of all people.” (“The Triqui word for relative is a rather generic term and in its extended sense sometimes is diluted to neighbor and friend. But the primary meaning is relative.”)
Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “The Person who Accompanies All People” (“The literal equivalents ‘son of man’ and ‘son of people’ were both rejected because of the false inference of natural birth involving a human father. Furthermore, it was necessary to expand any translation of the Bible by the addition of the pronoun ‘I’ so as to clarify the fact that Jesus is using the third person in referring to Himself. A common expression used by the Cuicatecos when difficulties befall someone, is to say to that one, ‘don’t worry, we are accompanying you.’ By this they mean they share that person’s sorrow. When wedding guests arrive at the home of a son who has just been married, they say to the father, ‘We have come to accompany you.’ By this they mean that they have come to share the father’s joy. These expressions do not refer to ordinary physical accompaniment, which is expressed by a set of different verbs. For example, visits are always announced by some such greeting as, “I have come to visit you,’ ‘I have come to see you,’ or ‘I have come to ask you something.’ The desire to accompany a friend on a journey is expressed by saying, ‘I will go with you.’ Translation helpers used the verb ‘accompany’ in constructing the phrase ‘I, the Person who Accompanies All People.'(…) It reflects the fact that Jesus closely identified Himself with all of us, understands our weaknesses, shares our burdens, rejoices with us in times of gladness, etc.”) (source for this and the three preceding: Beekman in Notes on Translation January 1963, p. 1-10)
Guhu-Samane: “Elder-brother-man” (“Since the term denotes an elder brother in every way such as honor, power, leadership, representation of the younger, etc. it is a meaningful and fitting — though not ostentatious — title.” Source: Ernest Richert in The Bible Translator 1965, p. 198ff. )
Navajo (Dinė): Diné Silíi’ii — “Man he-became-the-one-who” (“This terra presented a difficulty not only in Navajo but also one peculiar to all the Athapaskan languages. It lies in the fact that all these languages, so far as we know, have a word phonetically similar to the Navajo diné which has three meanings: ‘man, people in general,’ ‘a man,’ ‘The People’ which is the name the Navajos use for themselves. (The name Navajo was first used by the Spanish explorers.) Although it seemed natural to say diné biye’ ‘a-man his-son,’ this could also mean ‘The-People their-son’ or ‘a-Navajo his-son,’ in contrast to the son of a white man or of another Indian tribe. Since the concept of the humanity of Christ is so important, we felt that diné biye’ with its three possible meanings should not be used. The term finally decided on was Diné Silíi’ii ‘Man he-became-the-one-who.’ This could be interpreted to mean ‘the one who became a Navajo,’ but since it still would impart the idea of Christ’s becoming man, it was deemed adequate, and it has proven acceptable to the Navajos.”) (Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )
Toraja-Sa’dan: “Child descended in the world” (“using a poetic verb, often found in songs that [deal with] the contacts between heaven and earth”) (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
Obolo: Gwun̄ Ebilene: “Child of Human” (source: Enene Enene).
Mairasi: Jaanoug Tat: “Person Child” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Costa Rican Sign Language: “It was impossible to translate the expression ‘Son of Man.’ The son-man sign simply means ‘male child.’ The Costa Rican Sign Language (LESCO) team opted for an interpretation of the term and translated it ‘Jesus.'” (Source: Elsa Tamez (in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 59ff. )
Lokạạ: wẹẹn wạ ọnẹn or “son of a person.” “This translation is symbolic in that it uses indigenous Lokạạ words. However, since the publication of the New Testament in 2006, this phrase has gained popularity within contemporary Lokạạ society as an expression to describe an important person whose career is going well. In the New Testament, the phrase ‘son of man’ is used to describe Jesus as prototypically human, but the Lokạạ phrase is now being used to describe an exceptional person in Lokạạ society.” (Source: J.A. Naudé, C.L. Miller Naudé, J.O. Obono in Acta Theologica 43/2, 2023, p. 129ff. )
In many West African languages, using a third person reference as a first person indicator is common practice with a large range of semantic effects. Languages that use the exact expression “son of man” as a self-reference or reference to another person include Lukpa, Baatonum, Mossi (“son of Adam”), Yoruba (“son of person”), Guiberoua Béte, or Samo. (Source: Lynell Zogbo in: Omanson 2000, p. 167-188.)
In Swahili the expression Mwana wa Mtu or mwana wa mtu or “son/daughter of human person,” which is used by several Bible translations, also has “the idiomatic meaning of ‘a human being’” (source: Jean-Claude Loba-Mkole in An Intercultural Criticism of New Testament Translations 2013, see here). The same is true for the Lingala expression Mwana na Moto — “son/daughter of human person.” (Ibid.)
In Balinese “we are again bordering on theological questions when we inquire as to which vocabulary shall be used to translate the texts where Jesus speaks of himself as ‘the Son of man.’ One of the fixed rules governing the use of these special vocabularies is that one may never use the deferential terms in speaking of oneself. This would be the extreme of arrogance. Now if one considers the expression ‘Son of man’ primarily as a description of ‘I,’ then one must continually indicate the possessions or actions of the Son of man by Low Balinese words. In doing this the mystery of the expression is largely lost. In any case the vocabulary used in most of the contexts would betray that Jesus means the title for himself.
“However, a distinction can actually be made in Balinese between the person and the exalted position he occupies. For example, the chairman of a judicial body may employ deferential terms when referring to this body and its chairman, without this being taken as an expression of arrogance. Considered from this standpoint, one may translate in such a way that Jesus is understood as using such deferential words and phrases in speaking of himself. The danger is, however, that the unity between his person and the figure of “the Son of man” is blurred by such usage.
“On request, the New Testament committee of the Netherlands Bible Society advised that ‘the sublimity of this mysterious term be considered the most important point and thus High Balinese be used.'”
“One of the first things that we did in working through the earlier part of the New Testament was to decide on how we would translate some of the more difficult technical terms. It was immediately obvious that something must be done with the translation of ‘the Son of Man,’ since the literal rendering anak manusia (literally ‘child of a man’) held absolutely no meaning for Malay readers. We felt that the title should emphasize the divine origin and authority of the one who used this title, and at the same time, since it was a title, we decided that it should not be too long a phrase. Finally, a phrase meaning ‘the One whom God has ordained’ was chosen (yang dilantik Allah). It is interesting to note that the newly-begun Common Indonesian (Alkitab Kabar Baik, published in 1985) has followed a similar route by translating ‘the One whom God has chosen’ (yang depilih Allah).”
